Radiation defects and optical properties of ion implanted silicon dioxide

Abstract

The formation and annealing of defects in ion implanted silicon dioxide layers and in connection with them the refractive index change are of high interest for the production of electronic and integrated optical devices.

Several studies have shown that the ion implantation in fused silica leads to a compaction of the material and in consequence to an increasing of the refractive index.^1–6 On the other hand the defect formation in crystalline quartz is connected with a decreasing of the refractive index up to nearly the same value for ion implanted quartz and fused silica layers in the high dose region.^1,5 On the base of this effects optical waveguides had been produced by ion implantation in both material.^2,7–12 However, the nature of the mechanisms responsible for the defect formation and for the changes of the optical properties are not well understood.

This paper reports on the ion dose and annealing temperature dependence of several defects in connection with the refractive index change.